Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, president
of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, has been named
superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal
Francis George announced Friday.

McCaughey will take over the country's
second-largest Catholic school system July 1, at a time when
tuition is increasing and enrollment is falling at parochial
schools nationwide. Since its peak in 1965, enrollment in archdiocese
schools has fallen from 366,000 students to 98,225. Last year
was the first in 45 years that no Catholic elementary schools
closed.

McCaughey will take over implementation
of a strategic plan, called Genesis, that aims to strengthen
financial viability, Catholic identity and academic performance.

"Our first job is to be what
we say we are," said McCaughey, a member of the Dominican
Sisters of Springfield. "People will pay for that."

She added that she also would pursue
innovative ways to boost enrollment in areas where many parents
cannot afford tuition.

"The schools belong to the entire
Catholic community, and I believe they are their jewel,"
she said.

McCaughey said she did not seek the
position, but "the more I look at it the more excited I
truly am."

McCaughey is the second nun to be
named superintendent. She replaces Nicholas Wolsonovich, who
announced his resignation in December and later was tapped to
lead schools in the Diocese of Orlando.

George said McCaughey's vocation
factored into her selection.

"It was part of the picture
of course," he said, "a very wonderful part. Something
other young women will look at and say, 'I could do that too.'"

McCaughey added: "It does make
me free and allows me to give a ton of time for these kids."

Dominican nun named new
head of Catholic schools
'PROFOUND NEED' | Beefed up enrollment, raised millions at Marian
High in Chicago Heights

February 16, 2008

A Dominican nun who boosted enrollment
and raised $5.6 million in 1½ years as president of Marian
Catholic High School has been tapped as the new head of the Chicago
area's Catholic school system, Cardinal Francis George said Friday.

Sister Mary Paul McCaughey said she
never applied for the job of superintendent of Catholic schools
for the Chicago Archdiocese, but "the more I look at it,
the more excited I become.''

Sister Mary Paul McCaughey answers questions after the announcement
of her appointment as Supt. of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese
of Chicago, during a press conference Friday in Chicago.

A product of Chicago area Catholic
schools, McCaughey said there is a "profound need'' for
Catholic schools and she believes Chicago area parents are still
willing to "sacrifice and invest'' in them.

"Our first job is to be what
we say we are,'' she said at a news conference. "People
will pay for that because, you know what? There's more to life
than McMansions.''

On July 1, McCaughey will replace
Nicholas Wolsonovich as head of the nation's second-largest Catholic
school system. She will oversee 256 schools and 98,000 students
in Lake and Cook counties.

McCaughey conceded that Catholic
school can be expensive -- tuition and fees are $7,400 at Marian
Catholic in Chicago Heights. She said Catholic schools might
consider allowing "sliding scale'' tuitions, organizing
work programs for kids and providing scholarships to help fill
the financial gap.

"There's a million ways of doing
it, and we'll unfold it later, when I take over in July, after
I've had a chance to talk to schools,'' she said.

George called McCaughey the "outstanding
president of one of our best Catholic high schools'' in announcing
her selection. Her job is to raise achievement, help Catholic
faith-based schools grow, and possibly even add some schools,
he said.

A 1967 graduate of Marian Catholic,
McCaughey was named both principal and president of Marian Catholic
in 1992 and now serves as its president.

Under her helm, enrollment grew from
about 1,500 to a peak of 1,675 four years ago, said Marian Catholic's
principal, Sister Kathleen Tait. However, the school in the last
few years "purposely restricted enrollment'' so it could
reduce class size to 25 kids, Tait said.

Tait said that under McCaughey, the
school saw a building boom, adding a new arts wing, gymnasium,
college room, greenhouse, two science labs, a classroom addition
and a leadership center.

"She's very articulate. She's
very visionary. And she has an uncanny ability to bring people
along toward her vision,'' Tait said.

Historic
Mass to honor Dominican Sisters

February 22, 2008

GALVESTON TX Twenty Dominican Sisters from Ohio stepped
off a train and greeted Galveston for the first time on Sept.
29, 1882. They had come to establish a Catholic school for young
girls at the behest of Bishop Nicholas Gallagher, who was in
charge of the Diocese of Galveston.

Galvestons Sacred Heart Catholic
Church will celebrate a special Mass to commemorate their arrival
125 years ago and to acknowledge their various educational and
charitable contributions.

Shortly after Sacred Hearts
1882 success, the order created a free school for black children
known as Holy Rosary. The idea of educating African-American
children led to a storm of criticism as well as a threatened
boycott, both of which the sisters successfully overcame.

Galvestons Sister Mary Frances
Heins has been a part of the Dominican Order for more than 60
years. She entered as an 18-year-old girl fresh from high school.

The mission, as we started,
was education, she said. We have widespread ministries.

Dominican nuns serve at OConnell
College Preparatory School and Galvestons Literacy Center,
as well as other parochial schools and in a variety of mainland
vocations.

Our Dominican motto is veritas,
Latin for truth, Heins said. I have taught all my
life and also been a school administrator. I think being a Dominican
encourages creativity and teaching outside the box.

The line that led to Galvestons
shores is traditionally traced to St. Dominic, one of a family
of saints born in the 12th century. Dominic built up his order
by establishing houses in Italy, Spain and France.

His friars and nuns can be seen in
both classic paintings and more recent photos wearing their traditional
dress  a black shoulder cloak, cape or vest over a white
priests robe or nuns habit.

Heins said she was aware that the
average age of nuns in the United States has now topped 70 and
fewer and fewer young women are choosing religious orders compared
to other ministry options.

We (sisters) talk about that
all the time, but we dont think that we will die out as
an institution, she said. We still have quality people
who want to join us.

We even have a person who is
assigned to help those who might want to learn about us. We also
hold meetings for those who are interested in finding out more.

According to the Handbook of Texas,
Galvestons frequent storms, as in major hurricanes, drove
the orders headquarters from its original island location,
a rambling, wooden building at 16th and Market streets, to the
relative safety of nearby Houston in 1926, where it has remained
to this day.

But if that is why they left, there
might also be a little known reason as to why they first came:
Heins suggested Bishop Gallagher did have grounds to believe
that these particular nuns would be perfect for what he had in
mind for 19th century Galveston.

I think our Sister Agnes, the
leader of the group, was Bishop Gallaghers niece,
she said.

At A Glance

WHAT: 125th Anniversary Mass commemorating
the arrival of the Dominican Sisters in Texas

WHERE: Sacred Heart Catholic Church,
1302 Broadway, Galveston

WHEN: Noon, March 1

INFORMATION: On the Mass, call 409-762-6374;
on the religious order itself, call Pat Casey, 713-440-3706Therapist Remembered
as One Who Refreshed the Broken

February 17, 2008 New York City

Much of the later part of Kathryn
Faugheys life was contained on this block of East 79th
Street between First and York Avenues. It was where she shared
a top-floor apartment with her husband, bought flowers on the
corner on special occasions and listened to her patients as they
shared their troubles. And it was where her funeral Mass was
held on Saturday  at a church steps away from where she
was killed on Tuesday.

Dr. Faughey, a 56-year-old psychologist
who practiced in a building across the street from her apartment,
was remembered as a woman with a winning smile and a patient
wisdom.

About 350 people attended the hourlong
service, including many of her patients, which was held at St.
Monicas Catholic Church. From the steps of the church a
small memorial of flowers and cards was visible outside the building
a half-block away at 435 East 79th Street where Dr. Faughey was
slashed to death in her office.

Its just such a tragedy,
said Emily Fragos, 57, a neighbor who attended the funeral. Were
all very disturbed at the level of violence, that someone could
strike down someone in our midst.

Dr. Faugheys body was carried
into the church in a poplar casket and followed closely by a
procession of family members and friends, including her husband,
Walter Adam.

The Mass was presided over by the
Rev. Seamus Finn, who knew Dr. Faughey and had last seen her
at a fund-raiser for Northern Ireland at the Waldorf -Astoria
in November.

In one way, Father Finn
said in his sermon, her profession was so solemnly centered
on the act of listening and trying to bring freshness to lives,
trying to bring freshness to lives that are often broken apart
by anger, by bitterness, by pain and by suffering.

The circumstances of Dr. Faugheys
death has drawn an inordinate amount of news media attention.
Mourners had to push through crowds of reporters, photographers
and television cameras to enter and leave the church on Saturday.
Some spoke to reporters but most shied away to grieve in private.

Father Finn recalled Dr. Faughey
as a woman who found beauty in many places. She found it
in the city that she loved so dearly, for as many times as Walter
tried to convince her to move out of it, he said in his
sermon. We know she found it in places like Paris. We know
she found it in just the simplest conversations with anyone of
us.

The eulogy was given by her friend,
Sister Patricia Daly of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell,
N.J., who knew her from their days together at St. Peters
College in New Jersey, where Dr. Faughey had once been a professor.

Sister Daly described her as a woman
of incredible wisdom and deep spiritual faith.

She then turned to her friends
coffin and, clapping her hands together, said, Kathy, well
done. The congregation rose to its feet and joined in a
standing ovation.

January 13, 1991

Nuns' New Mission: Housing
Sisters to convert old school to units for elderly
Author: Estelle Lander. STAFF WRITER

At its peak, the Queen of the Rosary
Academy drew 800 high school students to its North Amityville
site surrounded by apple orchards, the brick buildings housing
the Sisters of St. Dominic, and the tiny chapel built 103 years
ago and recently rolled on tree logs to a new spot.

But like many Catholic schools on
Long Island, the Queen of the Rosary Academy fell victim to dwindling
numbers of children on Long Island and closed in 1986 after enrollment
dropped to 250 students.

Now, after five years of considering
how to best use the school and seeking town approval for their
idea, the Sisters of St. Dominic hope to break ground next month
on a first phase $9.6-million residence for the elderly that
combines independent living with communal activities.

The high school will house a restaurant-style
cafeteria, exercise room, beauty parlor and other rooms for activities
that residents will choose. It will be linked by indoor passageways
to four 2 1/2-story apartment houses for the independent elderly.
A separate section of the high school will have 66 studios for
those who need some help with daily needs, such as cleaning,
doing laundry, bathing or dressing.

Called congregate housing, the concept
is aimed at middle-class retirees with income too high for them
to apply for government aid and too low to afford complexes catering
to the wealthy, said Sister Helen Butler, a Dominican nun serving
as director of the nonprofit board set up to run the Dominican
Village, as the complex will be named.

"It's the middle class that
doesn't have the opportunity because everything on Long Island
is so expensive," Butler said.

Butler describes the Dominicans'
plan as part of the orders' centuries-old philosophy - to serve
others with dignity - that they have been applying in trade schools
and orphanages on Long Island and at their North Amityville site
on Albany Avenue since 1876. With the orphanages replaced by
foster homes and the trade schools long closed, the nuns decided
to help another growing segment of society, the elderly.

According to a report released by
the Washington, D.C.,-based Urban Institute, titled "The
Needs of the Elderly in the 21st Century," researchers say
that by the year 2030 the percentage of elderly owning their
own homes will rise to 80 percent from about 60 percent because
of added years that Americans will be working. At the same time,
another boost will come from aging baby boomers. One study notes
that 21.9 million Americans were 65 or older in 1986. By the
year 2030, that number is expected to increase 21 percent.

The Dominican Village, aimed at ambulatory
retirees around the age of 75, is sorely needed, said Joseph
Clemente, Suffolk County commissioner of the Department for the
Aging.

"There's a need to take care
of those at the poverty level and below," Clemente said.
"But there's also a tremendous market for those who can't
afford the large one-family home and who are looking for alternatives."
A survey his department sent last year to elderly residents asking
them to rate three top priorities showed that housing came in
second after the concern about long-term health care.

Clemente said the assistance offered
to some of the residents will help them stay psychologically
fit by keeping them as independent as possible, while the communal
meals will provide opportunities for them to socialize.

Butler estimates that the cost for
one person renting an apartment there will be between $1,400
and $1,500 a month, or about $17,000 a year. That compares to
her estimation of $1,030 monthly or about $12,000 annually for
one person living in a $150,000 house. The monthly fee at the
village includes a variety of services, including taxes, heating,
security, some transportation and the one meal a day.

But some say they worry the rent
might be too high and that the shrinking number of women entering
the order each year will make staffing the center increasingly
difficult in the future.

"Many seniors will look at $1,500
a month and say it's very expensive," Clemente said. "But
I think there will be a market for it. Many people will not want
to be institutionalized even though many nursing homes are of
country club quality."

Robert Kaufold, a Babylon Town Board
member who has supported the project, also said the rent might
be steep. In addition, he said he was worried that as fewer novices
join St. Dominic, the facility will have to hire added outside
help at ever-increasing prices, forcing the rent to rise.

"I appreciate the sense of mission,"
Kaufold said of the nuns. "But my concern is the issue of
the health of the Sisters of St. Dominic as a religious organization.
With more and more paid people, it can become self-defeating."

Butler admits that the numbers of
novices are alarmingly small. Only one or two women are joining
the order annually, compared with a high of up to 60 in the 1950s
and 1960s.

But she said that outside help, preferably
from the surrounding communities, will work at the facility from
the beginning, when it is expected to open in spring, 1992. The
nuns and the outside staff who will do the housekeeping, run
cafeteria services, coordinate activities and operate the center
will be paid equally, so that when more outside help is needed,
the costs shouldn't go up, she said.

And so far 140 respondents to a query
about interest in the Dominican Village that Butler advertised
in a diocesan newspaper said they are willing to pay the rent,
she said.

Costs have been kept down by starting
with only one of the four buildings and constructing the rest
as needed. The mortgage for the complex will go through the state
Housing Finance Agency, which gives a lower mortgage rate than
market rates and the state Housing Trust Fund has granted the
Village $1.7 million toward soft costs, such as administrative
expenses, Butler said.

The nuns established a nonprofit
corporation to handle the finances and oversee the operation.

Sitting in a small cottage on the
site, Butler points out architectural renderings of the residences,
which were to have been four stories tall but were scaled down
after a new town administration took over in 1987 and denied
the zoning variance to its 35-foot high limit on buildings.

Outside the cottage sits the high
school, with not a single window broken or a mark of graffiti
sprayed on its side in the five years it has been empty. Behind
it is Our Lady of Prouille Retreat Center, once used by the nuns
for contemplation and destined to be torn down.

The nuns use the term buffer zone
when they describe the 13-acre site - with its apple orchards
dissolving into grassy stretches, cemetery and buildings housing
elderly nuns and the administration office - that lies between
the industrial area of New Highway and the residential area starting
on Albany Avenue.

When the first nuns arrived from
Brooklyn 115 years ago, the area was nothing but farmland. Farmers
bringing their produce to market shaped what became New Highway
as they rode their horse-drawn carts over the road.

Four Dominican nuns came to the United
States in 1853 from a cloistered community in Regensburg, on
the Danube River, in Germany that dates back to the 1300s. A
visitor to the Amityville Community, as the nuns call it, can
feel an echo of the cloistered life in the replica of the enclosed
courtyard and chapel surrounded by arched hallways.

In 1876, a group of Dominican nuns
from Brooklyn established the Amityville center, and today there
are about 900 nuns based there, with thousands living in the
rest of the country and in a community in Puerto Rico. They are
required to have college degrees before being initiated and their
activities are as varied as running Molloy College in Rockville
Centre, Consolation Residence nursing home in West Islip and
a home for runaway girls and two high schools in Queens.

The Dominican Village planned for
the Amityville community brings the nuns into a new phase of
serving, Butler said.

"We respond to the needs that
emerge with each age," she said. "It's based on respecting
the dignity of persons."

Copyright (c) 1991 Newsday, Inc.
Record Number: 1004323045

Newsday (Melville, NY)

July 2, 2004

SISTERS OF ST. DOMINIC
Faith for a full future
At 150, a convent in Amityville seeks to sustain support
Author: PAOLA SINGER. STAFF WRITER

The future.

That's what Sister Virginia Maguire
of the Amityville Dominicans sees in the two women who recently
entered Queen of the Rosary Convent as candidates, and a third
who is preparing to make her final vows in one month.

"This is a sign of hope,"
said Sister Maguire, head of the Sisters of St. Dominic, one
of the oldest congregations on Long Island.

But without a secure stream of funds
and with an aging membership, they are facing the important challenge
of keeping their long legacy alive and stepping up to the exigencies
of a changing world.

"Our mission is to make the
Gospel relevant and alive to the people of today," Sister
Maguire said.

The Sisters of St. Dominic have been
active social workers in the New York region for more than a
century. Last month, they celebrated their 150th jubilee with
a fund-raising luncheon for more than 500 guests at the Queen
of the Rosary Motherhouse, an elegant brick estate built in 1876
and surrounded by a garden of trimmed evergreens. The event,
the sisters said, raised a bit over $80,000 to help them provide
for their retired sisters and carry on with their many ministries.

Of the 600 sisters who are affiliated
with the Amityville Dominicans, more than 240 are retired.

"When I entered in 1960, there
were 82 of us," Sister Maguire said. There are fewer than
60 women living at the convent today. Sister Maguire said that
as a direct result of Vatican II, a series of reforms that modernized
the Catholic Church four decades ago, religious women have the
option of being involved in the church in different ways.

Lives spent in service

The life of service of the Sisters
of St. Dominic began in 1853, when four religious women left
the cloister of the Holy Cross Monastery in Regensburg, Germany,
and came to Brooklyn to work with the children of German immigrants.
The extent of their ministry grew quickly and soon other sisters
joined them; they began working not only as teachers, but also
as health care providers, taking in children who had been orphaned
by the Civil War.

Sister Maguire said the congregation
came to their present Long Island home when a parishioner offered
his summer cottage in Amityville. It quickly developed into a
center for the care of orphans and people convalescing from tuberculosis.
"That little house became our first novitiate," she
said.

Today, the Sisters of St. Dominic
are involved in a variety of ministries in different parts of
New York City and Long Island, working in education, health care
and spirituality, among other areas.

Through Harvest Houses, an institution
with facilities in Syosset, Lake Grove and Floral Park, they
provide seniors with affordable living and companionship.

Sister Jeanne Andre Brendel, founder
of Harvest Houses, said she became concerned with the quality
of life of elders while working at a community center nearly
20 years ago.

"An elderly man died of malnutrition
in an area that was not poor," she said. "When I investigated
I found he died of loneliness."

With the help of fellow sisters and
volunteers, she set out to provide seniors with family- style
homes.

"I'm happy to be here,"
said Kathleen Knolhoff, 86, a resident of the Floral Park Harvest
House. "You are never alone at night."

The sisters dedicate much of their
time and effort to education, one of their primary ministries.
Through a program called Opening Word, they provide adult education
for low-income women. "This year we had over 60 women involved
in the program, learning any skill they would need to acquire
a job," Sister Maguire said. The program, with centers in
Amityville and Wyandanch, encourages and helps women to move
away from the welfare system and into employment.

Other programs are the Siena Spirituality
Center in Water Mill, where they provide spiritual guidance and
teach holistic living activities, and the Sophia Garden and Learning
Center in Amityville, a garden farmed by families in the community.

Recently, the Sisters of St. Dominic
began encouraging the participation of youngsters in their activities.

"We have a youth day where we
invite neighboring schools," said Sister Gina Fleming, the
congregation's promoter for youth. She said they also have youth
preaching weekends four times a year. "The congregation
loves to have kids around," she said.

Through fund-raising and networking
events like last month's, and by keeping their social work consistent
with the needs of the community, the Sisters of St. Dominic hope
to celebrate another 150 years.

"Truthfully [our future] is
uncertain, but we depend on God to show us the way," said
Sister Brendel.

Sister Maguire, optimistic about
the coming years, said, "There will always be a need for
the work that we do."

There may never be a chicken in every
pot, but if the Sisters of St. Dominic have their way, every
pot will be filled with fresh vegetables.

The sisters' Crown Point Ecology
Center, a 130-acre farm and wooded area on Ira Road in Bath,
was established 10 years ago to bring together spirituality and
ecology. But two years ago, the sisters added a third element
to the mix: charity.

"We believe this project serves
a vast array of people from all religious backgrounds,"
said Sister Mariellen Phelps. "We have a number of people
who have received the food and said how much it has meant to
their families -- having fresh vegetables that would not be within
their reach otherwise.

"They could not, for example,
afford to go to the Mustard Seed Market, which we know has wonderful
vegetables too. We are serving people who are tremendously limited
to taking whatever is available."

The project started in 1997, when
the center harvested more than 5,000 pounds of produce for the
needy.

The program was such a success that
last year the center increased the crop fivefold and harvested
more than 25,000 pounds of fresh vegetables for the cause.

Dan Sveda, executive director for
the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, said the organization usually
must rely of nonperishable items -- such as prepared and canned
foods -- to help the poor, because those produces transport and
store easily.

The few bushels of fresh produce
the food bank usually receives are donated by grocery stores
and often are on their "last leaf" by the time they
make it to the families' tables, he said.

The Crown Point vegetables -- including
onions, carrots, potatoes, green beans, cabbage and a variety
of greens -- are planted specifically for the food bank and are
grown under organic conditions. Often, families receive the vegetables
within a few days of the time they're picked, Sveda said.

Deb Marino, an assistant professor
of nutrition, dietetics and food science at the University of
Akron, said the value of fresh produce in food bank's pantry
is immeasurable, considering the importance of vegetables in
the daily diet.

"People who are low-income very
frequently will cut out the (fresh) fruits and vegetables because
they may not be affordable for them," Marino said. "We
recommend that people have at least five servings of fruits and
vegetables per day. People who are struggling economically are
less likely to get that amount, and that puts them at a health
risk."

Crown Point's food bank project is
funded through grants and the support of Community Supported
Agricultural members, who pay $425 at the beginning of the growing
season. The money is used to buy supplies and farming equipment.
The members get a tasty return on their investment -- a 10 to
15-pound bag of organic vegetables every week for 22 weeks.

The center has committed to donating
at least 50 percent of every harvest to the food bank, said David
Irvine, director of the Crown Point Ecology Center.

Of the 320 agencies the food bank
serves, 122 benefited from last season's crop, he said.

"There is a great need out there,
and our experience this year really proves that," he said.
"We have lots of room to grow."

Copyright (c) 1999 Akron Beacon Journal
Record Number: 9901110094

The Record (New Jersey)

June 24, 2001

A FAITH WITH ROOTS IN THE
SOIL, FRUITS ON THE VINE

NUNS USE WORKING FARM AS
RELIGION CENTER
Author: CHARLES AUSTIN, Staff Writer; The Record

Twenty-five people stood in a circle
in Blairstown on Saturday and used a ball of yarn to reconstruct
the world.

Tossing the yarn from a person representing
plants to others representing animals, rocks, air, water, and
the stars, they wove a web of life in which each element of creation
is connected.

The circle game was part of an effort
by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell to bring people closer
to the natural world and recognize that the earth has a spiritual
core shared by people, animals, and plants.

That recognition, said leaders of
Saturday's summer solstice observance at Genesis Farm, will foster
better care for the earth and its resources.

"Separating the spiritual and
the physical world is no longer possible," said Sister Miriam
MacGillis, who runs the 140 acres of farmland in Warren County
that the sisters inherited in 1980.

The nuns saw the growing interest
in ecology and in connecting religious faith with care for the
earth, and decided to use the farm as a place where people can
study, meditate, harvest the land, and explore conservation.

Since 1980, hundreds of people from
all over the world have attended the Genesis Farm courses taught
by MacGillis and others on "Earth Literacy," "Exploring
the Sacred Universe," and "Wisdom Traditions."
Several schools, including Drew University in Madison, offer
college credit for the courses.

Thana Giridhar, who teaches first
grade in Ridgewood, took one of the courses earlier this year
and said she was profoundly affected. "It's looking at the
world in a deeper way, and seeing how I live my life - even in
the little things - affects every other part of life," she
said.

One of the "little things"
Giridhar does is take her own bag to the store when she buys
groceries. She is also seeking local sources of vegetables and
meats so that her purchases "sustain local economies,"
often friendlier to the earth than corporate mass producers.

Genesis Farm holds equinox and solstice
rituals four times a year, and the farm sponsors nature walks
and a children's summer camp. Summer solstice, which actually
occurred Thursday, is the day with the year's latest sunset.
It marks the beginning of summer, which is known as the "season
of growth."

Indeed, the farm is more than a learning
and retreat center; it actually produces a variety of crops.
The crops are tended according to what the late Austrian philosopher
Rudolph Steiner called "biodynamics," a philosophy
that holds it is the earth that grows the crops, not the human
cultivators.

In 1998, the nuns began the "Community
Supported Garden." The cooperative was designed not only
to provide fresh vegetables for the 200 people who purchase shares
and work for the farm, but also to help them see the connection
between their own food supply and the earth.

Following a year-round schedule of
planting and harvesting, the gardeners exclude chemical pesticides
and fertilizers. Twice each week, shareholders can pick up baskets
of vegetables, herbs, and flowers from the garden.

People should care for the earth
not only because it provides food and shelter, MacGillis said,
but because the earth itself has a soul.

She acknowledges that this requires
a shift in how people view the world, and said views have steadily
been changing. After all, it wasn't that long ago that people
thought the sun revolved around the earth.

But science "has extended our
eyes and ears far beyond what our ancestors could have known,'
she said.

In previous centuries, the Catholic
Church often opposed scientific views of the world, seeing them
as contradictory to Scripture. But in recent decades, writers
such as the late Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit paleontologist,
have blended science and theology.

MacGillis cites his work. She now
sees the universe as a "single, continually unfolding event"
and the world as a "living organism" with an innate
spiritual dimension. "A life in the spirit is possible,"
MacGillis said, "not only for humans, but for the earth
itself."

Next year, the philosophy of the
farm may be spun off into a public school. Lisa Kelly of Hardwick
is seeking a charter from the state Department of Education to
open a school nearby in 2002 and make the farm a place where
children "receive a different view of the world."

"Rather than a consumer, hierarchical,
capitalistic worldview," she said, "we want to teach
children to know that we do not `rule' the world, its plants
and animals, but that we are a part of them."

Kelly moved to the area from Clifton
four years ago and began going to classes at Genesis Farm. She
wants her own small children to attend a school based on "earth
literacy."

"It is a very spiritual, a non-sectarian
philosophy," she said. "It is a faith rooted in the
environmental movement that connects you from your core to the
core of the earth."

Rain fell during most of the solstice
celebration, which is meant to celebrate the sun, so Lori Gold,
a staff member at the farm, read a poem about the sustaining
value of water.

But the sun returned to view when
MacGillis said summer solstice - "one of the midpoints on
our eternal ride around the sun" - existed "to remind
us that there will be summer growth, that our incredible journey
will go on."

When the Sisters of St. Dominic started
Dominican College in 1952, the campus consisted of two buildings
and 50 female students.

Today, the school has become a maze
of modernized buildings that service the needs of nearly 2,000
male and female students. Degree offerings have expanded, programs
have been accredited, and men have long been given permission
to enroll.

Much has changed at Dominican during
the last 50 years, but spiritually, its leaders said, the mission
has remained the same.

"The college came out of a dream
placed in the hearts of our founding sisters," said Sister
Mary Ann Collins, president of the Sisters of St. Dominic of
Blauvelt. "Their great belief in education and their trust
in God is the foundation of Dominican College, and today, 50
years later, the graduates of Dominican are making a difference
in church and society."

Dominican College was founded in
the Catholic tradition as a junior college chartered for the
teacher-education training of women. To celebrate its history
and 50th anniversary, college officials have organized special
events, including an alumni and family day, an Athletic Hall
of Fame induction ceremony and dinner, and a December holiday
concert.

At 11 a.m. tomorrow, a liturgy service
is planned in the main chapel of St. Dominic's Convent. The first
five of 50 honorary medals will be presented to those recognized
by the college as being instrumental to its growth.

Collins will accept the first award
on behalf of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt and the Sister
Founders of Dominican College.

"That's a very special start,"
said Sister Mary Eileen O'Brien, president of Dominican College.

Dominican enrolled 50 women in its
first year, nine of whom graduated two years later at the college's
first commencement ceremony. In 1959, the school was chartered
as a four-year liberal arts college, and in 1967, men were allowed
to enroll.

Sister Michaela Connolly, a 1968
graduate of the college, said the once-silent campus had changed
to a bustling place with students of all ages, races and backgrounds.

The biggest difference on campus
since then, she said, was the variety of social events, sports
and academic programs now available to students.

"Those things didn't exist in
my day," said Connolly, a member of the college board. "It's
been encouraging for us to watch it."

Dominican has grown to a fully accredited
four-year institution with nearly 1,800 students and 30 graduate
and undergraduate degree programs. This year, the college enrolled
the largest freshman class in its history, with 226 freshmen,
compared with 125 last year.

Officials hope to attract more new
students with the construction of the school's new Center for
Health and Science Education. The $12 million center - scheduled
to open in January 2004 - would provide special labs for science
and math majors and would house an auditorium large enough to
seat the entire student body.

O'Brien said the college had changed
with the times but had held onto its founders' vision.

It is important, she said, that the
college remain small enough for students to continue to feel
as though they are part of a family.

"There is ongoing discussion
with regards to the importance of our mission," O'Brien
said. "The college sets standards, and we want to provide
the opportunity for those people who can meet the standards to
go on and receive bachelor's and master's degrees."

O'Brien said the college aimed to
increast its enrollment to about 2,500 students in the near future.
Beyond that, she said, officials did not plan to recruit any
more students than the college could handle.

"It's the personal nature, the
accepting of diversity, the commitment of the individual and
the wanting to provide options for all people to achieve their
goals that make this college what it is," she said. "Those
kind of orientations remain."

Copyright (c) The Journal News. All
rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co.,
Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: wst2002092310000984

The Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron
will merge with six congregations to strengthen their mission
during a time of dramatically declining numbers.

The seven congregations, comprising
730 sisters, announced Thursday that the Vatican approved their
petition to unite into a new congregation, planned for Easter
Sunday 2009.

In the interim, the communities will
decide on a name, a location for the central offices and the
division of ministries.

Sister Mary Ann Wiesemann, general
superior of the Akron chapter, said Thursday that local ministries
such as the Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath and Our Lady of
the Elms elementary and high schools in Akron will go on as before.

The congregation began in 1929. Wiesemann
said that while it was difficult for the congregation to give
up its independence, the merger will allow for a stronger presence
through the combining of resources.

"That's part of the Christian
life: We die in order to rise more fully," she said.

Union talks began in 2002, and the
seven congregations voted independently last April for the merger.
The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life recently gave its approval for the Dominican
sisters in Akron to merge with the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary
of the Springs in Columbus, the Dominican Congregation of St.
Rose of Lima in Oxford, Mich., the Dominican Sisters of Great
Bend, Kan., the Dominicans of St. Catharine in St. Catharine,
Ky., and the Congregation of St. Mary and the Dominican Sisters
of Eucharistic Missionaries of St. Dominic, both in New Orleans.

Mergers are becoming more common
as many religious orders experience sharp drops in members. Nationally,
the number of nuns has fallen from 180,000 in 1965 to 64,000
in 2007. Only about 5 percent of nuns are under age 50.

In 2004, the Vincentian Sisters of
Charity in Bedford merged with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.
This year, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cleveland joined with
six other congregations of St. Joseph from Louisiana to Illinois.

Wiesemann said the Akron congregation
is full of hope even though its numbers have fallen from a high
of more than 250 sisters in the 1960s to 76 today.